When I attend networking events for my #business, one of the most popular topics of discussion is whether or not the U.K. (and the global #economy in general) is out of recession or not. Seems to me that many people I meet fall into one of two camps – yes, we’re out of the slump we’ve been in since 2008 or no, we’re very much still in it and things are fairly bleak.
I’m a positive person in general so I always tend to look for the silver lining and I also believe that we’re masters of our own destiny when it comes to recessions so it’s up to individual business owners to get themselves out of recession.
With that in mind, […]

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When I attend networking events for my #business, one of the most popular topics of discussion is whether or not the U.K. (and the global #economy in general) is out of recession or not. Seems to me that many people I meet fall into one of two camps – yes, we’re out of the slump we’ve been in since 2008 or no, we’re very much still in it and things are fairly bleak.

I’m a positive person in general so I always tend to look for the silver lining and I also believe that we’re masters of our own destiny when it comes to recessions so it’s up to individual business owners to get themselves out of recession.

With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to see what the general feeling is among our regular readers in a very simple poll. It’s a simple questions – how confident are you that your business will grow in the next six months. Let’s see what the general feeling is…

This is far from a scientific study by the way!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-confident-are-you-that-your-business-will-grow-in-the-next-six-months/feed/0Creating That Emotional Connectivity For Your Customers!http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/creating-that-emotional-connectivity-for-your-customers/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/creating-that-emotional-connectivity-for-your-customers/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 14:56:18 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=2048

Like many other fans, I’m looking forward to the start of the next season of Premier League football. As an avid Liverpool FC supporter, okay, not everyone’s number one choice, but the club has had some good and bad times recently. In addition, there are changes afoot this season, the impact of which I’ll be watching closely. Setting the season up nicely is the new Sky Sports advert featuring Thierry Henry. After watching it, I could almost visualise being present during some of those iconic moments.
In summary, if you haven’t seen it, the advert picks out thirteen snapshots in footballing history, and Thierry is seen in each clip, starting in 1993 with him joining the celebrations of Brian Kidd and Sir Alex […]

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Like many other fans, I’m looking forward to the start of the next season of Premier League football. As an avid Liverpool FC supporter, okay, not everyone’s number one choice, but the club has had some good and bad times recently. In addition, there are changes afoot this season, the impact of which I’ll be watching closely. Setting the season up nicely is the new Sky Sports advert featuring Thierry Henry. After watching it, I could almost visualise being present during some of those iconic moments.

In summary, if you haven’t seen it, the advert picks out thirteen snapshots in footballing history, and Thierry is seen in each clip, starting in 1993 with him joining the celebrations of Brian Kidd and Sir Alex Ferguson, when a late win over Sheffield Wednesday set Manchester United on course for a first Premier League title.

Of course, these special effects are ground-breaking and not every #business can afford that sort of budget, but there a sense of nostalgia brought about by an emotional attachment to the result, person or venue. The advert simply makes you feel excited about the season ahead!

Applying that message to your business is simple. These moments of celebration and cheer are emotions we want to feel. It’s clever and leaves us with a warm glow. We end up adopting a product or service because we connect with the inherent message of that brand, whether or not it is success, power, danger, glamour or another need and most of this connectivity takes place on a subconscious level.

Your customers have to identify with your product, service and want to buy it. Just hoping that your product or service is well-designed, packaged and available, does not mean it will sell. That is where you have to create that desire or want and your product or service needs to create that emotional connection. On that basis, take some time to think about these questions and then answer them honestly.

What difference will your product or service make at a tangible level?

How will buying this product or service make your customer’s life different or better?

How do you help them to visualize or feel the end state?

Have you promoted any customer feedback to show that difference? If now, how can you do that?

As a summary, it’s all about how we want to feel about ourselves! And that is the genius of emotional #marketing. As for me, I’m hoping LFC have a top 5 finish this season!

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/creating-that-emotional-connectivity-for-your-customers/feed/0Because It’s All About You…Isn’t It?http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/because-its-all-about-you-isnt-it/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/because-its-all-about-you-isnt-it/#commentsSun, 26 Jul 2015 11:38:45 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=2053
Because It’s All About You…Isn’t It?
OK, stay with me here because I am going to talk about quite a dry subject – your About Me page.
I can see you are rolling your eyes already…..
Some people have a real problem with their About Me page. Can I ask you a question? Do you have an About Me or an About Us, or simply an About page on your website? If yes, is it any good? If no, then why the heck not?
There are two sorts of people on the internet, those who will visit About Me pages, and those who don’t bother, and quite frankly couldn’t care less if you have one or not.
When your #marketing plan consists of getting people […]]]>

Image credit: my.wealthyaffiliate.com An example of an interesting About Me page

Because It’s All About You…Isn’t It?

OK, stay with me here because I am going to talk about quite a dry subject – your About Me page.

I can see you are rolling your eyes already…..

Some people have a real problem with their About Me page. Can I ask you a question? Do you have an About Me or an About Us, or simply an About page on your website? If yes, is it any good? If no, then why the heck not?

There are two sorts of people on the internet, those who will visit About Me pages, and those who don’t bother, and quite frankly couldn’t care less if you have one or not.

When your #marketing plan consists of getting people to your landing page, and focusses on conversion to sales, then your About Me page doesn’t really figure in your plans. However, there will always be those potential customers who are harder to convert, and will need some extra reassurance before they are convinced to buy from you. This extra reassurance will undoubtedly come from your About Me page.

What’s On Your Page?

If you do have an About Me page, then it better be doing something good for your image, and really help to foster a feeling of trust to convince hard to please customers to buy from you.

If you don’t have an About Me page, then you should get one because people will be looking for it. Wanting to find out more about you indicates a potential customer who may well be looking for a long-term relationship, with the potential of repeat sales and loyalty.

There is one common problem with most About Me pages out there – they are so boring! Many people will add the page as an afterthought, and will only spend a few minutes adding a few ill thought out pieces of information.

I am sorry but YAWN! Your page is dull, and you are boring. I think I am going to go away now and find someone a little more interesting to do #business with. Thanks, but no thanks.

Is It Really All About You?

Go take a look at your page now….I can wait. Is your page all about your business, what you do, your history, your awards etc.? Yes? Then change it. Change it now.

Regardless of your focus, be that B2C or B2B, you have to remember that people do business with people. You need to put up real faces of real people with real names.

Don’t forget that you have a personality and a voice. You want your page to be about you and the other people you may work with, and not some faceless corporate greyness that can leave your potential new customers or clients feeling a bit vague and disconnected from you.

Mix It Up To Offer Interest

Looking at your page, is it all words, or have you included some images on there? What sort of images are they? An exterior shot of your building, or a long shot of your professional looking office?
Where are the smiling faces? Where are the real people? Give your potential customers or clients someone real to associate with, and you will be on your way to building a solid relationship with them.

Do you have a video clip? Video is a great way to get over the human side of your business, especially when you focus the camera on someone real. However, not everyone likes videos, and if they are watching your video at work, it may be their company policy to have the sound disabled on all computer equipment, so your video will obviously lose its impact.

If possible, have a mixture of text, images and video to cover all bases, but try not to rely on just one option. Your overall message should be about why your customer or client should choose you, how you can help them to get what they want, and be interesting!

Show your potential customers the benefits of choosing you. If you have some good feedback or customer testimonials, then put them on your About Me page. This is visual proof of why they should choose you over someone else.

Have a sign-up link to your newsletter on your About Me page, don’t just save your sign up link for your home page. This will give your curious visitors another chance to get to know you better.

A good About Me page will give you another magnetic page to promote on social media. Not many businesses actively promote their About Me pages on #Facebook or #Twitter etc. and it is a great way of attracting new sign-ups to your newsletter, as well as raising awareness of your brand online.

So, today’s homework….go and sort out your About Me page. It is not difficult, and your efforts will be rewarded with extra customers and increased email list contacts.

What better day to #freethejoy than on a Friday! Dairy Milk are known for some pretty epic adverts and it’s all about joy. They even have a specialist section on their website called the JoyMaker where you can make and personalise your own bar, to your specifications.
Like my previous blog this week this advert has nothing to do with the product, but again it does such a great job in evoking a feeling in the viewer. As their whole ethos is joy that’s what they need their adverts to do.
Cadbury are a really great example of a company manipulating (in the nicest way possible) their consumers to feel what they want you to feel. Sneaky sneaky.
This is something I think businesses […]

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What better day to #freethejoy than on a Friday! Dairy Milk are known for some pretty epic adverts and it’s all about joy. They even have a specialist section on their website called the JoyMaker where you can make and personalise your own bar, to your specifications.

Like my previous blog this week this advert has nothing to do with the product, but again it does such a great job in evoking a feeling in the viewer. As their whole ethos is joy that’s what they need their adverts to do.

Cadbury are a really great example of a company manipulating (in the nicest way possible) their consumers to feel what they want you to feel. Sneaky sneaky.

This is something I think businesses of all sizes can put in to practice, thinking more about our consumers and clients emotions and feelings and using that to help us get more out of the relationship.

Watching TV can be a roller coaster of emotions. You can, for the most part, choose what you watch depending on your emotion, or maybe you purposefully watch something to influence your mood. I know I’ve put on Brooklyn Nine Nine to cheer myself up after a rubbish day or put Family Guy on after I’ve watched a scary film to help me forget!
The one thing which we don’t really choose is adverts. Of course we can switch channels when we aren’t interested in something, but if you stay with one channel it can be eye opening how vast the array of emotions marketers can put to you.
Funny adverts like the Aldi ones…”I don’t like cheese, I don’t like kids”. Heartfelt […]

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Watching TV can be a roller coaster of emotions. You can, for the most part, choose what you watch depending on your emotion, or maybe you purposefully watch something to influence your mood. I know I’ve put on Brooklyn Nine Nine to cheer myself up after a rubbish day or put Family Guy on after I’ve watched a scary film to help me forget!

The one thing which we don’t really choose is adverts. Of course we can switch channels when we aren’t interested in something, but if you stay with one channel it can be eye opening how vast the array of emotions marketers can put to you.

Funny adverts like the Aldi ones…”I don’t like cheese, I don’t like kids”. Heartfelt and powerful ones used by charities and finally the one I wanted to write about today. I don’t think that ‘aww’ is an emotion but that’s what this advert does to me. This tiny little flying squirrel like animal stops me from grabbing the remote and flicking over like I do with most ads and I suppose that’s all the #marketing department want you to do. Watch the advert. The squirrel has nothing to do with breakfast biscuits, but that, mixed with the brilliant 80’s music has some crazy affect on me to make me remember the product as I type this.

This makes me think whether the ever important marketing message is actually that important?! I don’t know what the message this little animal is supposed to portray as it definitely doesn’t scream ‘oaty oomph’ to me.

Anyway, prepare to aww…

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/marketing-message/feed/0Facebook Advertising, Is It Good Or Just A Face-Ache?http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/facebook-advertising-is-it-good-or-just-a-face-ache/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/facebook-advertising-is-it-good-or-just-a-face-ache/#commentsSun, 19 Jul 2015 12:40:56 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=2030#Facebook
Advertising, Is It Good Or Just A Face-Ache?
Just about every small #business and sole trader will be working from a very tight #marketing budget, so every penny counts, as they say.
You may have already tried a bit of #social media marketing before, but may not have been totally confident about what you were doing, or you have been putting it off because you don’t know how well it works.
Well, if you have not tried Facebook advertising yet – I am here to tell you to get your finger out, and get in there while it is still cheap!
If you are not advertising on Facebook – you are missing out!
Not convinced that Facebook is for you? Let’s take a look at […]]]>#Facebook

Image credit: Score.org

Advertising, Is It Good Or Just A Face-Ache?

Just about every small #business and sole trader will be working from a very tight #marketing budget, so every penny counts, as they say.

You may have already tried a bit of #social media marketing before, but may not have been totally confident about what you were doing, or you have been putting it off because you don’t know how well it works.

Well, if you have not tried Facebook advertising yet – I am here to tell you to get your finger out, and get in there while it is still cheap!

If you are not advertising on Facebook – you are missing out!

Not convinced that Facebook is for you? Let’s take a look at some stats shall we:

Globally Facebook has 1.6 billion users. That is pretty impressive, yes?In the UK alone, there are an average of 24 million daily users.Facebook has a pretty comprehensive knowledge database – they know a lot about us!If you want an international audience, then in the USA there are 128 million users daily.

Because Facebook are incredibly nosey, and they know so much about us, it makes their advert targeting incredibly accurate, so your advert will be directed to the very audience you desire rather than a generic mix you get with newspaper advertising.

For a small business, entrepreneur and sole trader, this means that Facebook advertising is a very cost-effective option, especially when you are working from a limited budget.

How does Facebook Advertising work?

You can set your own maximum budget for each day your advert runs, and you can also choose the length of your advert set. You can even pause you advert at any time, so for example if you have booked a weeks advertising and there is a very sunny bank-holiday weekend approaching where you target audience is more likely to be out enjoying the sunshine rather than viewing your ad, then you can pause it until the weekend is over.

Depending on your industry and your target audience, you can pay anything between 5p and 50p per click. For example, I am promoting my brand new fiction writing page at the moment, and am paying about 39p per page like, but compare that to just 9p per post engagement I was paying for a recent post promotion on my fashion page.

You can choose to promote your page to gain likes, or an individual post on your page that may contain a sale code or special promotion you are running. Either way, you will end up getting page likes no matter which way you choose to promote. My fiction writing page is not selling anything yet, but I want to gain some likes and prime an interested audience ready to buy when I do have something to sell.

Monitor your stats

An interesting and useful tool that Facebook give you is a live breakdown about costs per response and how well you are averaging against other similar pages in your niche. This really does give you a blow by blow insight into your advertising efforts, and can easily highlight a problem such as poor targeting, which is a common failure point of a lot of advertising campaigns.

Before social media, and the development of tracking metrics, we really were working in the dark a lot of the time when it came to direct marketing. Small budgets were easily blown when sending the wrong message to the wrong people.

With newspaper or direct mail advertising, once you had committed your advert, it was set in stone. With Facebook however, it is easy for you to split test your adverts. You can change your advert images or headlines if your original choice isn’t working for you.

Another great time saver and good use for your advertising budget is to combine promoting your page for likes, as well as to pick up opt-ins for your email list. If you prominently feature your newsletter sign-up link on your page, then when people like your page, they may also choose to opt-in to your email list too.

If you are still wary about dipping your toe into Facebook advertising, then I would suggest testing yourself with a small budget to begin with and practice, practice, practice. Play around with your advert, monitor your results closely and amend if necessary.

It does take some time and effort to perfect the ultimate Facebook ad, but if you are happy to put in the time, then it will be well worth it!

I may be a bit behind the 5 million other people but I’ve just seen the alternative to the ‘real’ trailer at Comic Con for the new Star Wars film.
OMG I cannot wait for the film.
I think the best thing about this video is that it’s not a trailer, it’s so much more. It doesn’t just give you the usual highlights of the upcoming film and quotes you’ll be saying for years to come. This gives you an insight to the production itself. The passion, blood, sweat and tears which is going into making it. There are actual actors and not just CGI effects, which I’m sure even the newer generation will appreciate.
This is really better than any trailer I’ve […]

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I may be a bit behind the 5 million other people but I’ve just seen the alternative to the ‘real’ trailer at Comic Con for the new Star Wars film.

OMG I cannot wait for the film.

I think the best thing about this video is that it’s not a trailer, it’s so much more. It doesn’t just give you the usual highlights of the upcoming film and quotes you’ll be saying for years to come. This gives you an insight to the production itself. The passion, blood, sweat and tears which is going into making it. There are actual actors and not just CGI effects, which I’m sure even the newer generation will appreciate.

This is really better than any trailer I’ve seen for a film and has me gripped in anticipation for the upcoming film.

Last week we took an initial look at crowdfunding, and with most crowdfunding networks, your #business venture or project is open to scrutiny from all ranges of financer. With angel investments, investors tend to be vetted and certified as high net worth or sophisticated investors. This also means that proposals are shielded from exposure to unverified users, which could mean your competition can even view your strategy for growth and #investment. That is worth a thought!
Angel investing is basically equity #finance. An Angel investor will look at businesses in the same way as the eyes of a “Dragons Den” investor, and will make decisions about whether or not their investment will return a high enough yield. They are as interested […]

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Last week we took an initial look at crowdfunding, and with most crowdfunding networks, your #business venture or project is open to scrutiny from all ranges of financer. With angel investments, investors tend to be vetted and certified as high net worth or sophisticated investors. This also means that proposals are shielded from exposure to unverified users, which could mean your competition can even view your strategy for growth and #investment. That is worth a thought!

Angel investing is basically equity #finance. An Angel investor will look at businesses in the same way as the eyes of a “Dragons Den” investor, and will make decisions about whether or not their investment will return a high enough yield. They are as interested in profit as the business itself, and will be extremely keen to see the pitch, current status and where their investment will be utilised. Then the investor would normally take shares in your business in return for providing equity finance.

Business angels are now recognised by the government as being a key form of investment for small companies. The government encourages business #angel investment though tax incentive schemes which offer range of tax reliefs to investors who purchase new shares in those companies. The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is designed to help small, higher-risk companies raise finance by offering tax relief on new shares in those companies that qualify. For the investor, it’s a tax efficient way to invest in small companies.

The EIS is aimed at the wealthier, sophisticated investors. People can invest up to £1,000,000 in any tax year and receive 30% tax relief. However, they are locked into the scheme for a minimum of three years. EIS seeks to encourage investment into unlisted companies.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is a derivative of the EIS, launched with the aim of encouraging seed investment in early stage companies. Investors, including directors, can receive initial tax relief of 50% on investments up to £100,000 and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption for any gains on the SEIS shares. The maximum amount to be raised for each company is £150,000.

Within Wales, there are several linked angel networks, such as Xenos, although you should also consider Crowdcube, Venture Giant and other national networks and connectors. As an example, Xénos, was established in 1997 to introduce business angels to Welsh companies seeking growth funding. It works closely with investors and businesses to find a suitable introduction. Once again, the Business Wales website can provide more information about angel investment on the link below

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/when-do-you-turn-to-angel-investment/feed/0How Much Is Too Much Customer Contact Through Social Media?http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-much-is-too-much-customer-contact-through-social-media/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-much-is-too-much-customer-contact-through-social-media/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 14:12:05 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1985
How many times have you read that you should keep in constant constant contact with your prospective clients and customers through your #social media platforms? Quite a lot right?
But how often is too often? When do you cross the line between being helpful and informative with your posts, to something that is seen as annoying and intrusive.
The general accepted advice is to post at least once per day to your #Facebook page or #Twitter account, and allow enough time for your customers to respond before replying to their queries and questions.
Why we need to post every day
Many new #business owners will often wonder why we need to post something on social media every day. The simple answer is that because […]]]>

Infographic source: https://www.google.co.uk

How many times have you read that you should keep in constant constant contact with your prospective clients and customers through your #social media platforms? Quite a lot right?

But how often is too often? When do you cross the line between being helpful and informative with your posts, to something that is seen as annoying and intrusive.

The general accepted advice is to post at least once per day to your #Facebook page or #Twitter account, and allow enough time for your customers to respond before replying to their queries and questions.

Why we need to post every day

Many new #business owners will often wonder why we need to post something on social media every day. The simple answer is that because it works! Your customers have a chance to get to know you, and learn to trust what you have to say, as long as what you are saying is of value of course.

You can pretty much guarantee that every other successful business in your niche will be posting every day too, and those that don’t are quite easily forgotten about. You are present enough in your customers conciousness to be a familiar and welcome voice, but not too intrusive to become an annoyance to them.

Building familiarity and trust is a slow process, and your customers will only be ready to buy from you when they want to, and not when you want them to. This is why you need to be around for them to answer questions and offer more information to help them decide to buy.

Put yourself in your customer’s place. Who would you buy from, the friendly guy who posts good information every day, or that guy who only appears once a month or so, and it always pushing me to buy something.

Patience is a virtue

Did you know that only 2% of sales actually happen on first contact? According to the National Sales Executive Association, it can take between 5 to 12 times before you see up to an 80% response rate that result in sales. This shows that people are more comfortable buying from your when they are familiar with you, and you have earned their trust.

Keeping up constant contact can be both testing and time consuming, especially if you are moving into social media from a high-pressure sales background where you are used to everything happening fast. You have to adapt to becoming the tortoise rather than the hare.

Persistence and patience is the key, and once-per-day contact is a tried and tested method to win over your prospective customers. So how do you know if you are being too eager? How do you know if you are contacting them too much?

The answer is you will not know for sure, but one of two things will certainly happen: Your customers will either buy from you, or they will tell you to get lost.

What if every day is too much

For some small business owners, especially if you are a sole trader with no other staff, doing everything yourself can so time-consuming that you cannot justify dedicating time to post to social media every day. Don’t forget that every post you create must be of some value, and that simply going onto Facebook to say ‘hello’ simply will not cut it.

There will also be certain business niches where posting every day may seem a little excessive, or the idea of posting every day seems a little too scary to you. If this is the case, then posting three times per week may be your best way forward. You will be posting often enough to stay in people’s conciousness, but at the same time your posts will not become too overwhelming for you to handle.

The can apply the same rules if you are trying to build an email contact list through your social media sites. If the thought of emailing your client list every day, as well as posting onto social media sites daily, is too much to handle, then specify how often you will be in touch – and make it a realistic target for you to cope with.

Celebrity endorsement is a powerful thing. L’Oreal uses beautiful women with their shiny hair, Hugo Boss has hunky men and their husky voices. It’s all about building brand equity.
Brands use celebrities who they know their target market identify with or idolise and therefore increase the chances of people buying their products.
However, I believe some celebrities can just be very, very bad choices. The example I have chosen is the ever controversial Piers Morgan.
In this series of Lotto adverts it is all about letting the public know that anyone can win the lottery, as long as you’re in it to win it. Even celebrities could win, so lets make sure all the public is in so they have less chance of winning. […]

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Celebrity endorsement is a powerful thing. L’Oreal uses beautiful women with their shiny hair, Hugo Boss has hunky men and their husky voices. It’s all about building brand equity.

Brands use celebrities who they know their target market identify with or idolise and therefore increase the chances of people buying their products.

However, I believe some celebrities can just be very, very bad choices. The example I have chosen is the ever controversial Piers Morgan.

In this series of Lotto adverts it is all about letting the public know that anyone can win the lottery, as long as you’re in it to win it. Even celebrities could win, so lets make sure all the public is in so they have less chance of winning. In this one, they portray Piers to be talking about himself as the big I Am, but we know this is him taking the mickey out of himself, all light hearted and hopefully lovable. But he isn’t. All this advert does is really make me hate him more.

The lottery, in my eyes is potentially very dangerous for some people who, if they added it up, could have probably put a small mortgage on a house the amount they’ve paid out on it and never seen any reward. They use an arse like Morgan to entice people to keep playing….just in case he wins.

As I write this I’m realising it’s actually a good example of celebrity endorsement for the very reason I just mentioned above….so I suppose my main anger with this advert is that I don’t believe he needs more airtime. So I won’t include his advert, but one which I enjoy…

To end the week I wanted to share a video with you which both covers the basics of #marketing but also an insight into one of the biggest brands in the world.
It’s great to have the transparency and see a company as big as Apple to go through the same processes which all other businesses do when it comes to marketing. They went back to the beginning, back to basics to find out who they really are and let that pave the way for their marketing.
Hopefully you agree it’s a nice way to end the week and a great way to motivate you forward to next.
https://youtu.be/gAEVBvN8Q6Q
[…]

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To end the week I wanted to share a video with you which both covers the basics of #marketing but also an insight into one of the biggest brands in the world.

It’s great to have the transparency and see a company as big as Apple to go through the same processes which all other businesses do when it comes to marketing. They went back to the beginning, back to basics to find out who they really are and let that pave the way for their marketing.

Hopefully you agree it’s a nice way to end the week and a great way to motivate you forward to next.

It’s common sense to market your products and services to those who are most likely to buy from you and to target them via the channels they use and the times they watch/read. We schedule #social media to make sure a certain group of people see our messages, place adverts in magazines we know our target audience read and the big companies pay for TV adverts to be shown at their target markets ‘peak viewing’ times.
As I work from home I usually take some time out at lunchtime to have some grub and watch a bit of day time TV (Real Housewives, don’t judge me), but the thing I seem to watch the most is the bloody adverts. Not only are […]

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It’s common sense to market your products and services to those who are most likely to buy from you and to target them via the channels they use and the times they watch/read. We schedule #social media to make sure a certain group of people see our messages, place adverts in magazines we know our target audience read and the big companies pay for TV adverts to be shown at their target markets ‘peak viewing’ times.

As I work from home I usually take some time out at lunchtime to have some grub and watch a bit of day time TV (Real Housewives, don’t judge me), but the thing I seem to watch the most is the bloody adverts. Not only are they annoying because they happen every 10 minutes, but it’s the type of advert which is annoying. Just because it’s mainly women at home during a weekday it doesn’t mean we need to see adverts for hair removal and make up all day long.

The advert below is a prime example of something I see everyday and can basically say word for word. I know people will say, well don’t watch TV, read a book or go for a walk, but sometimes I want to just sit and watch mind numbing shows. I just wish these companies would realise that however much I see these stupid adverts, I won’t be buying their products!

I’m actually watching TV whilst I write this and have had another 3 adverts about skincare and make up, both with a crazy amount of celebrity endorsement!

Advertisers take note…Less is more.

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/time-your-targeting/feed/0How To Apply For Crowdfunding For Your Business In Wales And Where To Find Help And Supporthttp://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-to-apply-for-crowdfunding-for-your-business-in-wales-and-where-to-find-help-and-support/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-to-apply-for-crowdfunding-for-your-business-in-wales-and-where-to-find-help-and-support/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2015 09:48:45 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1911

Whilst traditional funding methods are becoming harder to find, #crowdfunding may be a way of raising #finance for your start-up or established #business.
With crowdfunding, members of the public can pool their resources to help you hit your fundraising target and in some cases, can support your idea by donating small amounts. They do not expect any return. Other crowdfunding sites require a return-on-investment, via shares or loan repayments and may be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
In Wales, there have been some success stories recently where crowdfunding has helped businesses to flourish. As an example, take a look at Veega, a hi-tech firm, which has raised over £370k worth of funds through Seedrs. Veega’s idea was to develop a multi-channel […]

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Whilst traditional funding methods are becoming harder to find, #crowdfunding may be a way of raising #finance for your start-up or established #business.

With crowdfunding, members of the public can pool their resources to help you hit your fundraising target and in some cases, can support your idea by donating small amounts. They do not expect any return. Other crowdfunding sites require a return-on-investment, via shares or loan repayments and may be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

In Wales, there have been some success stories recently where crowdfunding has helped businesses to flourish. As an example, take a look at Veega, a hi-tech firm, which has raised over £370k worth of funds through Seedrs. Veega’s idea was to develop a multi-channel order and inventory management system, designed for online retailers to sync stock between their retail store, website, eBay Shop and Amazon Marketplace in real time, and also let them print courier shipping labels automatically. Central stock management reduced order issues and helped to increase customer sales and boost positive feedback!

Seedrs, www.seedrs.com, is an online platform for discovering and investing in start-ups. It allows people to invest as much or as little as they like in the start-ups they choose, through an online process. So businesses can raise seed capital seamlessly from friends, family, members of their communities and independent investors. A timely point to note is that Seedrs has just attracted the interest in Andy Murray, who is joining the Advisory Board and is keen to build up his portfolio of investments, especially in sports and health businesses!

If you want to find out more, there are free workshops available to attend and to help you create a winning strategy to set up your crowdfunding project. You have to win the hearts and minds of your potential investors, so as a minimum, you’ll need a sound pitch and a great video introduction to sell your idea and explain the benefits.

Next week we’ll take a deeper delve into venture capital and angel investment as a means of financing your business!

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/how-to-apply-for-crowdfunding-for-your-business-in-wales-and-where-to-find-help-and-support/feed/0Be Careful Not To Start A Price-war On Social Media!http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/be-careful-not-to-start-a-price-war-on-social-media/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/be-careful-not-to-start-a-price-war-on-social-media/#commentsSun, 05 Jul 2015 13:04:44 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1916Small #business owners have to be very careful with their money, and often only have a limited budget to play with.
When we are having to compete in a niche with other similar businesses, it can be very tempting to run a sale through #social media and actively be seen to be undercutting our main competitors. The only problem with doing this is what happens after your campaign ends.
Yes, you may have run your sales campaign successfully, and managed to sell a lot of product or services, albeit at a much reduced price. But that’s OK, right? You managed to pick up a healthy amount of new followers, and convinced a good proportion of them to sign up to your newsletter […]]]>

Small #business owners have to be very careful with their money, and often only have a limited budget to play with.

When we are having to compete in a niche with other similar businesses, it can be very tempting to run a sale through #social media and actively be seen to be undercutting our main competitors. The only problem with doing this is what happens after your campaign ends.

Yes, you may have run your sales campaign successfully, and managed to sell a lot of product or services, albeit at a much reduced price. But that’s OK, right? You managed to pick up a healthy amount of new followers, and convinced a good proportion of them to sign up to your newsletter too, maybe.

But…. there is always a ‘but’

If they are worth their salt, your competition would have picked up on your sales campaign, and may have lost some of their customers as a direct result. In retaliation, they may then go on to release their own campaign.

There is a risk that by cutting your prices too low, even if you only planned on doing this for a very short time, that you could cause a bit of a snowball effect. Each of your competitors will roll out a campaign following on from the last one, until eventually your cannot sell your product or service at a normal price again.

There is a real danger of undervaluing your product or service in your customers eyes. They will see your prices go back up and say, “hey, I can get it cheaper with them instead!” Soon enough, you will be forced to lower your price permanently, or realise that you cannot operate your business any longer on such a minimal profit level.

Ultimately, there are only losers in a price war. Be very careful about setting your sale prices. Don’t be too aggressive, or it could cost you far more than a quick profit.

Think about what your customers want

You and I share a lot in common with our clients – we are all customers in one shape or other. We all love a bargain of course, but we also appreciate good service, plus want whatever we buy to be the finest quality we can afford.

The trouble is that no one will ever find all those qualities in the same place all of the time. However, we can hit two out of three of those targets. You can build your business on a solid foundation by providing the highest quality product or service in your niche, and you can back this up with offering superb customer service.

You get what you pay for

I know that I would rather be known for offering the best quality and service in town on my social media feeds rather than be known as being the cheapest. If you sell yourself too cheap, you will not be doing yourself or your reputation any favours.

Yes, everyone loves a bargain, but do you think someone will be really happy with their purchase if it turns out to be of poor quality? Do you think they would be satisfied with a poor service?

How to handle the hagglers

If you are operating in a competitive niche, you may well attract comments on your social media pages saying something like – Your prices stink! I can get it cheaper from X.

So what do you put as a response that doesn’t involve using swear words? Well, first of all, you don’t have to justify your price to anyone. You don’t need to explain or apologise about why your product or service may cost a little more. You know what you provide is worth the money, so don’t devalue yourself or what you do with a knee-jerk reaction to reduce your price.

A polite response is always good to keep the peace, but rather than pander to the dissenter, just reply with something simple, like: “So? We offer the better package, and we prize customer satisfaction higher than the cost of the product.”

Now that the ball is back in their court, they can either choose to buy your product or service, or go with the cheaper price. If they do choose your competitor over you, then you know that they would have been a difficult sell anyway.

You have to ask yourself why they were trying to pick an argument with you if they already knew they could get what they wanted cheaper somewhere else? Maybe they had read that the other company had terrible customer service, or that they use a cheap delivery system that meant a lot of product may have arrived damaged.

Whatever the reason, you stick to your guns and take pride in your own values!

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/be-careful-not-to-start-a-price-war-on-social-media/feed/0Business Coaching – How This Can Help You To Plan And Work Through Issues!http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/business-coaching-how-this-can-help-you-to-plan-and-work-through-issues/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/business-coaching-how-this-can-help-you-to-plan-and-work-through-issues/#commentsTue, 30 Jun 2015 09:57:19 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1880

##Business coaching can help you to overcome barriers you face when growing your business. Coaching works on the premise that you, as the business owner, have the answers within, but these need to be drawn out, through questioning and exploration. Then achievable objectives need to be set and reviewed and adjusted accordingly. The end goal should remain the same, but you might come across other options and possibilities as you start to action your plan. It’s all part of the learning process of growing yourself and your business!
As such, a business coach tends to be focussed on working towards a specific goal, one at a time, and can be performance-focussed or role-focused, whereas a mentor will act as a “sounding-board” and will use their […]

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##Business coaching can help you to overcome barriers you face when growing your business. Coaching works on the premise that you, as the business owner, have the answers within, but these need to be drawn out, through questioning and exploration. Then achievable objectives need to be set and reviewed and adjusted accordingly. The end goal should remain the same, but you might come across other options and possibilities as you start to action your plan. It’s all part of the learning process of growing yourself and your business!

As such, a business coach tends to be focussed on working towards a specific goal, one at a time, and can be performance-focussed or role-focused, whereas a mentor will act as a “sounding-board” and will use their own personal experience to help the mentee. In some cases coaching and mentoring can work together, and both can help a business, although mentoring tends to be a longer-term and less formal in structure. We’ll come onto structuring a coaching session, using a helpful model, later in this article.

It looks as though there are few opportunities for free business coaching, but most business coaches will offer a free initial consultation so that you can see how this works and to allow you to check out the style of coaching and whether or not it suits.

Another check to make is that the coach is accredited to a professional network and has undergone professional training, so don’t be afraid to ask for proof of this.

If your issue is about skills, behaviour development, or a transition into a leadership role, take a look at the Leadership & Management Wales (LMW), which is the Centre for Excellence for leadership and management skills in Wales. The website shares information about how to hook into free, funded and subsided opportunities for training and coaching.

Other companies specialise in different types of coaching, from team coaching to personal one-to-one coaching. The list below shares differences between types of coaching, a directory of coaches, and some share events you can attend to find out more information.

Zokit offer networking sessions and coaching/mentoring for businesses, including start-ups. More information can be found out on their website: http://zokit.co.uk/

As a guideline, a useful approach to coaching is to work through a series of questions, by using the CIGAR model. This explores:

Current: What is your current situation? What are your current issues? Prepare a SWOT analysis if you need to, exploring strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Ideal: Where do you want to be? What would your ideal situation look like in 12 months? What is your motivation to achieve this?

Gap: What are the gaps in existing knowledge, skills, motivation or experience? Why do the gaps exist? Why is it important to bridge the gaps?

Actions: What actions do you need to take to take you to your ideal state? What are the priorities in those actions? When do they need to be achieved? What support do you need to achieve these? How can you reach out to get the support you need?

Review: How will you know if you have achieved this action? What’s the outcome or output? How will you measure this?

It may be worthwhile working through this coaching model, work on your action plan and use any insights gleaned to spur you on!

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/business-coaching-how-this-can-help-you-to-plan-and-work-through-issues/feed/0Gasp! Did You Just Use The ‘M’ Word?http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/gasp-did-you-just-use-the-m-word/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/gasp-did-you-just-use-the-m-word/#commentsSun, 28 Jun 2015 14:27:56 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1889
Isn’t it funny how attitudes change over the years.
These days of #social media #marketing makes us, as small #business owners, very wary of coming over as marketers who are only interested in pushing our own product or service.
You see, after many years of being subjected to shifty salesmen, especially the cliché used car salesman trying to sell us a dodgy second-hand car, the public have become very suspicious of people who are obviously trying to sell us something.
Are you a Marketer?
Lets be honest. When you introduce yourself to someone new, do you ever describe yourself as a ‘marketer’? No, didn’t think so. You will be more likely to say you are a small business owner, and then mention the area […]]]>

Credit: highlyrelevant.com

Isn’t it funny how attitudes change over the years.

These days of #social media#marketing makes us, as small #business owners, very wary of coming over as marketers who are only interested in pushing our own product or service.

You see, after many years of being subjected to shifty salesmen, especially the cliché used car salesman trying to sell us a dodgy second-hand car, the public have become very suspicious of people who are obviously trying to sell us something.

Are you a Marketer?

Lets be honest. When you introduce yourself to someone new, do you ever describe yourself as a ‘marketer’? No, didn’t think so. You will be more likely to say you are a small business owner, and then mention the area you deal in. This will set you up in people’s minds as a professional business person, or go-getting entrepreneur rather than someone who deals in the shady world of sales and marketing.

Sales and marketing are an essential part of setting up and running a successful business, and these are skills that you use to influence and modify people’s behaviour to choose your product or service over a rivals.

A good salesperson has absolutely no intention or desire to mislead people into buying anything, but having the power to coerce someone’s thinking can also make people very wary of you. If you were to introduce yourself to a complete stranger as a marketer, they may be put on guard, and not want to be taken advantage of in any way.

Marketing = dodgy

Years of poor salesmanship where dodgy schemes used underhanded tactics to get money out of people have given sales and marketing a bad reputation. For example, look at the recent spate of PPI claims that have been running through poor or manipulative selling of insurance policies over the past few years.

People resent the hard-sell these days, and an approach like this will often leave your potential customers cold. With the rise of social media, you can quickly earn yourself a bad reputation for being pushy or selfish, and this can be really hard to shake off.

Reclaiming the ‘M’ word

Our challenge as small business owners, sole traders and entrepreneurs is to reclaim the ‘M’ word and make it acceptable once again. But we can only do this by being careful not to cross the line between being influential and just plain manipulative.

“Honesty is the best policy” a proverb of Benjamin Franklin. This is a good byline to keep in your head at all times with your approach to marketing your product or business. You need to know your customer inside out, and understand how your product or service will help them, or be beneficial in some way. By knowing what your customer worries about, you will know how to help them.

Bill Bernbach, an American advertising creative director for Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), once said: “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” But truth alone is not enough to persuade someone to buy from us. We also need our customers to feel something. We need to create a desire for our product or service, but this is only ethical if our customer has a genuine need for it.

The psychology of marketing

Have you ever wondered why you automatically say no to a request when it is put in a certain way, but when it is asked in a different way, why you then say yes?

I will give you an example of what happened to me at the dentist: I needed a filling, so my options were to have an amalgam filling or a white filling. The dentist was quite matter of fact, and he stated that the amalgam filling would be cheaper to have. I chose the amalgam filling.

A few weeks later, I found myself back in the dentist chair after suffering a broken tooth. I needed another filling, but this time I had a different dentist attending to me. This dentist offered me the choice between amalgam or white once again, but this time she talked about how the white filling would look better, how comfortable they feel, and how much like a real tooth they look these days. Guess what. I got the white filling.

This time it wasn’t the price that was the deciding factor. I got the white filling because the dentist sold me the benefits of having it despite it being more expensive. The perfect example of the psychology of marketing. I needed a filling – I was going to have a filling – I chose the more expensive one because of the added benefit to me.

When you think about Scotland, some stereotypes spring to mind: haggis, kilts, “FREEDOM” and IRN BRU.
The latter, for those of you who don’t know, is a carbonated drink, often known as “Scotland’s other National drink” and is a colour like no other. It’s bright, very bright.
I’ve tasted it a few times, and never really thought much of it – it tastes a bit like ginger, and I’m not a huge fan of that. It’s also not a drink I ever think “ooo yes a bit of Bru to quench my thirst”, Coke or water will do me just fine. So I don’t know why recently, when I’ve been seeing it in shops I’ve stopped and thought it as an option. […]

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When you think about Scotland, some stereotypes spring to mind: haggis, kilts, “FREEDOM” and IRN BRU.

The latter, for those of you who don’t know, is a carbonated drink, often known as “Scotland’s other National drink” and is a colour like no other. It’s bright, very bright.

I’ve tasted it a few times, and never really thought much of it – it tastes a bit like ginger, and I’m not a huge fan of that. It’s also not a drink I ever think “ooo yes a bit of Bru to quench my thirst”, Coke or water will do me just fine. So I don’t know why recently, when I’ve been seeing it in shops I’ve stopped and thought it as an option. All I can think is that it’s down to their latest adverts.

You may remember some of the controversial adverts they’ve had in the past (the mother playing the piano) but their recent ones really do make me chuckle, and I can only reason that this is why I’ve started noticing the product more and it becoming an option to me. I’ve included one of the least naughty ones today, which I’m sure we can all associate with. The fear of 1) having to use the toilet on the train and 2) that the door wont shut and will open by itself!

If it ever does happen, let’s learn from this guy…

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/persuasive-marketing/feed/0Do You Need Business Mentoring To Help You To Grow Your Business?http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/do-you-need-business-mentoring-to-help-you-to-grow-your-business/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/do-you-need-business-mentoring-to-help-you-to-grow-your-business/#commentsMon, 22 Jun 2015 20:04:33 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1871

As a #business owner, whether in a start-up business, or in a more established venture, there are times when you need to talk through worries or concerns, or even brainstorm ideas about the important choices you need to make to sustain and grow your business. Business mentoring is a confidential one-to-one relationship where you can use a more experienced business person as a sounding board and for guidance. Most mentors have business experience at senior levels and mentors are often vetted before being allowed to work with a mentee.
There are many sources of help so we’ll explore some of these below.
Business Wales Mentoring offers a coordinated voluntary business mentoring service in Wales. It provides a platform to enable Welsh businesses to […]

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As a #business owner, whether in a start-up business, or in a more established venture, there are times when you need to talk through worries or concerns, or even brainstorm ideas about the important choices you need to make to sustain and grow your business. Business mentoring is a confidential one-to-one relationship where you can use a more experienced business person as a sounding board and for guidance. Most mentors have business experience at senior levels and mentors are often vetted before being allowed to work with a mentee.

There are many sources of help so we’ll explore some of these below.

Business Wales Mentoring offers a coordinated voluntary business mentoring service in Wales. It provides a platform to enable Welsh businesses to engage on a business to business basis, sharing expertise and promoting business growth.

PRIME Cymru is dedicated to helping people aged 50 and over in Wales remain or become economically active by providing ongoing support for older people who wish to develop and establish a business idea. Their mentors are mature, trained people who volunteer their time and expertise to help people achieve their goals. All services are provided free of charge to any individual seeking assistance.

http://www.primecymru.co.uk

The Business Advice Group Ltd have over 200 specialist mentors and they work to improve the performance and profitability of small and medium sized companies throughout England and Wales. Details of the services offered are included below:

http://ibd-uk.com/

The Princes Trust offers a variety of support for young people. The role of the mentor is described in more detail through the link below.

Once approved, mentor profiles are loaded onto the website and are then matched to the business owner looking for help in any aspect of business within a specific industry sector. The sites contain contact details to offer further information.

So, if you have a gap in your knowledge or experience, then mentoring could work very well for you. Your mentor will be a role model to share experiences and will help you develop your potential. Don’t be confused with business coaching; that is the subject we will explore next week.

]]>http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/do-you-need-business-mentoring-to-help-you-to-grow-your-business/feed/0Why Your Small Business Advertising May Suckhttp://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/why-your-small-business-advertising-may-suck/
http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/why-your-small-business-advertising-may-suck/#commentsMon, 22 Jun 2015 18:30:22 +0000http://lobsterdigitalmarketing.co.uk/?p=1876
Why Your Small #business Advertising May Suck
It used to be so simple back in the glory days of advertising. The advertising agencies dreamed up a simple, yet catchy advertising slogan, and paired it with an appealing visual, then usually billed you with an amount that would sustain the inhabitants of a small island for a year.
When I was growing up I had many favourite adverts on TV, and I bet you had some of your own too? Here’s one: Do you remember the Frosties cereal advert with Tony the Tiger? How simple was that! ‘Frosties, they’re gR-R-R-reat….!’
However, since Frosties and other sugary cereals have been pretty much banned from our screens for promoting unhealthy eating, many of our nostalgic childhood […]]]>

It used to be so simple back in the glory days of advertising. The advertising agencies dreamed up a simple, yet catchy advertising slogan, and paired it with an appealing visual, then usually billed you with an amount that would sustain the inhabitants of a small island for a year.

When I was growing up I had many favourite adverts on TV, and I bet you had some of your own too? Here’s one: Do you remember the Frosties cereal advert with Tony the Tiger? How simple was that! ‘Frosties, they’re gR-R-R-reat….!’

However, since Frosties and other sugary cereals have been pretty much banned from our screens for promoting unhealthy eating, many of our nostalgic childhood TV ads have gone the same way too. This is not the point I am making though. What I am trying to explain is that these adverts wouldn’t work for today’s consumers, and advertising like this certainly wouldn’t work for you either. Why not? Well, lets take a closer look shall we.

Selling the product will not work

The adverts from our childhood were cool and catchy, but did you ever stop to think what is in this for me? As a child, I never did. But I do now. Nostalgia aside, what was the point of the Frosties advert? What were they trying to tell me about the cereal in the box, or why I should choose to eat them over any other brand of cereal available on the supermarket shelf?

Today, the catchphrase ‘They’re gR-R-R-reat!’ wouldn’t make me want to rush out to buy them. There is no unique selling point. How would I benefit from buying them? Why would I need them in my life?

Selling the benefit rather than the product

Many small business owners are slowly starting to learn that they have to sell the benefits of owning what they sell. The problem is trying to explain this viewpoint to your sales and #marketing team, or to the creative company you may be outsourcing your advertising to.

The problem with advertising companies is that they are full of creative types, and the problem with creative types is that they are far more concerned with being creative than being effective.

When you are looking around with a mind to hire someone to handle your small business advertising needs, you will be met with a wall of ‘look at our awards’, and you will see websites proudly boasting about their award winning advertising features – but award winning for what exactly? Did they win awards for the creativity of their adverts, or for their effectiveness in bringing in sales?

Don’t get hung up on creativity

Before you invest your hard-earned advertising budget into any outside agency, be careful to check that their company blurb actually talks about conversion rates, sales and profits for their customers rather than how many creative awards they have won.

Small business owners cannot afford to throw money at agencies to help them win industry awards. Whoever you choose to handle your advertising should be focussed on making adverts that help YOU to make money by converting prospective customers into buyers, or to get people to sign up to your newsletter, or to increase your following on social media – whatever it is that YOU are hiring them for.

Build a good relationship

You may have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince, but when you do find a creative agency that is actually more concerned with solving your advertising problems than with boosting their own image, hang on to them!

A good advertising agency that delivers results should be looked upon as business partners rather than hired help. If they have proven themselves effective by giving you results, then they obviously are knowledgeable about their work and are worth listening to when they offer you guidance.

Any agency worth their salt will understand that they need to keep their clients happy. If they cannot hang onto their client base for long, then they don’t make any money. The way to keep their customers happy, and to keep the money rolling in, is to build a relationship with their clients and consistently deliver on what they promise.

Just remember – don’t be impressed by the bling. They may have a cabinet full of shiny awards, but are any of them relevant to you?

After 12 years of running technology companies including a CEO appointment at the age of 28, I traded the corner office for a chance to drive the discussion on how the digital economy is going to forever change how #business is done. I’m an MBA, adjunct business professor and 2x author of best-selling business books including “The Millennial CEO” and “The New Rules of Customer Engagement.” Pianist, soccer fan, husband and father, not in that order. Oh and for work…I’m the Founder of Broadsuite, a specialty #marketing firm that helps companies be found, seen and heard in a cluttered digital world.
Paid programmatic marketing on #facebook, #twitter, YouTube, and #linkedin are hot topics right now for both B2B and B2C companies […]

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After 12 years of running technology companies including a CEO appointment at the age of 28, I traded the corner office for a chance to drive the discussion on how the digital economy is going to forever change how #business is done. I’m an MBA, adjunct business professor and 2x author of best-selling business books including “The Millennial CEO” and “The New Rules of Customer Engagement.” Pianist, soccer fan, husband and father, not in that order. Oh and for work…I’m the Founder of Broadsuite, a specialty #marketing firm that helps companies be found, seen and heard in a cluttered digital world.

Paid programmatic marketing on #facebook, #twitter, YouTube, and #linkedin are hot topics right now for both B2B and B2C companies trying to take advantage of the massive boom in social media advertising. But B2B and B2C can be vastly different creatures in the ways they use social channels for advertising. Not only that, they are driven by different motives for their social ad campaigns. For consumer brands, widespread visibility and loyal viewership are key metrics that funnel all the way down to measurable conversions. However, in the B2B arena, the numbers are very different. The growth of just a couple of customers can mean millions in new revenue. This is why all those views, the shiny objects, and the vanity metrics may mean less for a B2B marketer.

But does that mean, in B2B, you shouldn’t pay attention to building the funnel? Not at all. In fact, B2B firms are always looking to attract a super-targeted audience— a lot more than consumer brands—because unlike B2C, they can’t sell their products to just anyone. Also, in B2B, purchase decisions are made over a longer period and the buying cycle is painfully slow.

In social advertising, the landscape has drastically changed. Getting results from social media now involves a financial investment. Social media is, more than ever, pushing the user from organic to paid reach. Naturally, B2B brands need to think twice about where to spend their money. Rather than investing time and money on every social channel, marketers need to ask questions: Which platforms give the best results for B2B? Where can we get the best bang for our buck?

Being a business-centric channel, LinkedIn was always at the forefront of B2B social media activity. This was when other social sites like Facebook and Twitter were busy catering to the B2C users and didn’t put effort into the more serious and somber B2B users. There was also a marked difference in the way people perceived LinkedIn compared to other social sites. Sometimes called “Facebook for grownups,” LinkedIn was acceptable in the workplace, while Facebook and Twitter were either blocked or seen as something you didn’t want to be caught wasting time on while at work. Times have changed. Facebook at Work and Twitter for Business shattered these social sites’ strictly consumer image.

Over the years we’ve tried all the platforms for social advertising and they all have their benefits and differences. My recommendation for B2B business is to try and cover all basis. For example, one of our target markets is smaller start-ups and solopreneurs so Facebook is an obvious place for us to advertise as many of these types of businesses use Facebook to promote themselves and are therefore quite active on the site.

You need to be where your market is so before taking out any advertising think about who your target client is and where they may hang-out online.